Filenews 19 October 2023
Community authorities cut and sew by directly assigning work to members of their councils or their relatives or even to their employees, while at the same time they buy products from companies of interests of members of community councils (CS). There was also the hiring of a secretary without procedures.
The above are included in a report of the Audit Office which examined the operation of 32 community councils following relevant complaints on public procurement issues. The report shall record the following findings/conclusions:
-Direct award of works, without following the tendering procedures, in violation of the relevant legislation and the principles governing public procurement.
-Direct purchase of materials without the request for offers.
-Award of contracts to tenderers, who did not submit the lowest (economically advantageous) tender, without any/sufficient justification.
-Non-recording of traffic and fuel data of community council vehicles.
-Change of the terms of the contract, after the award of the tender, for the purchase of water meters by community councils. Supply of water meters without a receipt note and without having been registered in the relevant material registration registers, alterations in the recording of water consumption and existence of illegal meters.
Award of studies without tenders
-Direct award of studies to private consultants without asking for tenders and, sometimes, without concluding a contract. Weakness of community councils in preparing complete/quality tender documents for the purchase of CME services.
-Inadequate control by the district administrations (ED) or delay in taking measures by the Armed Forces in incorrect management of construction projects of CP.
-Erroneous/unlawful decisions of PA, as well as mismanagement in contracts of PA.
Payments without invoices
-Payment of payments to contractors (contractors, etc.) without presenting invoices/evidence/receipts.
-Hiring a secretary by the method of purchasing services through a flawed procedure.
- Failure to invite all members of the CPs to meetings and/or failure to inform all members of the CPs of the decisions taken.
Do the minutes also suffer?
Failure to properly and substantiated compliance with the minutes of the CP sessions. Especially for the assignment of works in the exhibition, it is mentioned that it is often observed that work is assigned and / or materials / products are purchased to / from relatives of CC Members. In addition, direct assignments are often made to other bodies for the provision of various services within the communities, without following the prescribed procedures set out in the relevant Law and the relevant regulations, resulting in unlawful decisions, which violate the principles of transparency, equal treatment of economic operators.
The general conclusions
The general conclusions of the report include the following:
-Decisions are taken and actions are taken, which are not recorded or documented in the minutes of the CP meetings.
-There is a delay or omission in sending the minutes of the meetings of the CPs to the Armed Forces for the necessary legality check, resulting in works/projects being carried out, without obtaining approval/assent from the relevant District Administrations. However, the opposite is also observed, i.e. while community councils send the minutes of meetings to the district administrations in a timely manner (for the relevant legality check), they unjustifiably delay in carrying out this control, resulting in community councils proceeding with the execution of works/projects before receiving the necessary approval from the district administrations.
Projects at the highest bidder
There is an award of contracts to tenderers who did not submit the lowest financial offer, on the basis of the provisions of the tender documents, a practice that, on the one hand, violates the provisions of Law N.73(I)/2016 and the principles of equal treatment between economic operators, and on the other hand does not safeguard the public interest.
They also change the terms
-There is a change in contract terms, after the award of tenders, as found with the purchase of water meters by a specific community council. In addition, there are omissions/gaps/weaknesses, both in the recording of materials in the material registers and in the keeping of the mileage log book for the vehicles of the CV, thus making it difficult to control them, actions that do not safeguard the public interest, in case of improper management of these resources of the CP.
Weaknesses in documents too
-There are often weaknesses and omissions in the preparation of complete/quality tender documents by community councils, both for works contracts and for the purchase of CME services, as well as in the conclusion and management of contracts with private CMOs, resulting in problems at the implementation stage of these contracts, which do not safeguard the public interest.
-It is often observed that community councils proceed to direct assignment of project studies to individuals, without calling for tender, while sometimes they do not even conclude a written agreement with them. As a result of the above omissions/weaknesses, the public interest is not adequately safeguarded, as problems often arise, either at the stage of implementation of the aforementioned contracts, or at a later stage, during the execution of projects, due to shortcomings/gaps in the services offered by the consultant designers.
Issues of mismanagement
Erroneous/unlawful decisions of community councils are very often observed, as well as issues of mismanagement arise in contracts of community councils, such as the assignment of works without convening a meeting of the competent body for the evaluation and decision, the direct award of works without a call for tenders and without this need being substantiated, the illegal felling of trees without obtaining a relevant permit from the Department of Forests, award of contracts for the execution of works on private plots at the expense of the CC, etc.
